Hell: Immortal Soul

But we had a suggestion for a sermon on hell, the basic teaching on hell. And I realized how many years has it been since probably you've heard a sermon on the basic teaching that we have on hell. But as I started to put that sermon together, I realized if we're really going to cover it, I mean, I could go through, here's 10 scriptures, let's go through that, and we'd all are comfortable with that.

Of course, there's other scriptures that people use to take a totally different viewpoint on hell than we do. And we have to be honest to look at those. What does those mean? I mean, it's, you know, we could cherry-pick the Bible and say whatever we want. So we have to be honest, okay, where does their viewpoint come from?

So I started to expand it out and expand it out. Now I get three sermons on hell. Because the first thing we have to deal with is the immortal soul. I mentioned the movie Hell and Mr. Fudge, which is on Netflix, which is a great movie because it's real. It's a true story. I have one of his books at home, which is about 800 pages. And Edwin Fudge was an evangelical minister in the 1970s who struggled with the idea of God putting people in everlasting hell forever and ever and ever for a finite amount of sin.

You know, you sin for 30 years and then you get tortured forever. That just didn't make sense to him. And he studied it and studied it, so it almost drove him crazy. His wife left him, not because she was leaving him to divorce him, but simply said, Finish this, I'll come back.

Because he was actually walking around the house in his robe. You know, because he was studying 15 hours a day and he never even took a shower. Okay, when you're done with this, let me know I'll come back. You need this time to figure this out. She's a very supportive wife, but she realized he needed time. And he studied, studied, studied, and he finally realized the key is, do we have an immortal soul? That's it. You understand hell, what the Bible teaches about hell comes from understanding other things.

You have to put it all together. So what I've decided to do is I want to talk about the immortal soul today. In a couple months we'll talk about what does it mean that there's a spirit component of man? What does that mean? And then we'll talk about hell, because you have to put all this together.

So this is basic information. I mean, this is not a sermon that, like child worry, where we went through all kinds of practical applications. This is more like a classroom presentation, because this is what we need to do. Every once in a while we need to go back and make sure, why do we believe what we believe?

Is it true? Can it stand up to what other people say? And so if we can't do that, if we can't look at what we believe, look at what someone else believes and compare it, and say, no, this is what God says, we're in trouble. So we have to be able to do that. So what we're going to do today, like I said, it's more like a classroom. I'm going to show some slides.

We're going to go through numerous scriptures. I don't want it to look like I'm doing two things here. One, using dictionaries to supply the total definition of a doctrine. And I'm not, but I am going to talk from a couple of biblical dictionaries, or quote them. And two, I'm going to be going through scriptures and it could look like, well, you're just cherry picking what you want. No, I'm going to go through the scriptures to show how words are used.

There are actually dozens of examples, but you have to, you know, there's no use going through dozens of examples to make a point. So I'm going to be using how a word is used. A Hebrew word, a Greek word, and so what did it mean to the people who first read the Bible?

What did that mean? And then we'll go through that and be able to come to some definite conclusions that doesn't solve the hell problem, but it is a step we have to take if we're going to discuss that. So, once again, this is an overview. This is not to answer every issue there is about this, but it is an important overview. What I want to start with is an Old Testament word.

There's a few Hebrew words most of you know. Nefesh is one of them. Nefesh is a word that appears over and over again in the Old Testament. And it is usually translated soul, although it's translated in a lot of different ways. Knowing what that Hebrew word means in ancient times is real important.

Here is from Vites of Spoxitory Dictionary. Can you read this in the back? I tried to get a font that I thought could work in this room. Can you read it in the back?

Kim says a little bit, but your eyes aren't that good. Somebody else.

There are over 28 different English terms for this word. Now that tells us a problem we have in English, right? If we translate a word 28 different ways, now that doesn't mean just the synonyms. I mean there are words that are synonyms. They have a similar meaning, so we can flip them back and forth. But what we have is a problem with a word that has no English equivalent to translate it. Usually it's translated soul. The Hebrew system of thought does not include the combination or opposition of the body and soul, which are totally Greek and Latin in origin.

This is important to understand. When you look at the word soul in the Old Testament, it does not mean immortal soul. It never means immortal soul. To the people who originally wrote it, because that's not what the word meant. That's not what the word meant now or then. Many Jews today, many people in Judaism believe in an immortal soul, but that came later. The reason I say it came later, the Jewish Encyclopedia says this too.

The Jewish Encyclopedia says, to the people in the Old Testament, they didn't believe they'd make you have an immortal soul. But that came into Jewish thought when they were under the Greek rule between Malachi and the New Testament. And they admit it. So if we're going to look at the Old Testament, we can't force into the Old Testament a modern idea. And so what we'll see is that the word neifesh is very important in how do they use it in the Old Testament.

Now, you say, well, this is complex. This is actually very simple. Any of you could do this if you just took the time to do it. A couple Greek dictionaries and a good concordance, and you could do this.

Especially a strong concordance. So this isn't difficult to do, it just takes time. Let's look at one more. This is from the Interpreter's Bible Dictionary. It's a four-volume set. In the King James Version of the Old Testament, Saul represents almost exclusively the Hebrew neifesh. In the Old Testament, neifesh never means the immortal soul. It is essentially the life principle or the living being, or the self as the subject of appetite and emotion occasionally of volition. In other words, it's you're a living being. It is sometimes translated life force. In other words, it's what makes you alive.

It's what makes you alive. There is no concept in the word that the moment you're alive, you're immortal. In fact, the way the word is used, the way the word is used, it doesn't mean that at all. That's why when we get into the concept of spirit, it's very interesting what spirit actually means, especially in Hebrew. What we have is this neifesh. Neifesh, whenever you read soul in the Old Testament and other terms, what you'll get is, you realize, it doesn't mean the mortal soul.

It never did. And this is agreed upon by almost every person, Christian, Jewish, agnostic, anybody who knows ancient Hebrew, the overwhelming majority agree on this. So we're not making this up. This is the prominent view among those who know ancient Hebrew. They didn't ever meant that. It's not what the word meant. So we have to be careful, and this is what people do. They cram into the Bible. We can do that sometimes. We cram Americanized ways into the ideas into the Bible that aren't actually there. They're just part of our culture. So we think it's normal. Only men wear pants.

I mean, men have to wear pants. Real men wear pants. Yeah, but nobody in the Bible wore pants. I don't want to go there. But I just, you know, disappointed. So when we look at this, we now begin to understand, we have to look at how nafesh is used. So let's go to a few places here. Okay. Genesis 2.7. And it's used hundreds of times. But let's look at how it's used in just a couple of places. Genesis 2.7, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nossles the breath of life, and man became a living being. This is what the King James says.

If you have an old King James, it says, the man became a soul. Being here, it could be translated person, is exactly what nafesh means. He was made out of clay. God breathed into him, and we'll really look at what that means when we get into the Spirit. God breathed into him, and he woke up. He was alive. He didn't pre-exist. He now is alive.

And Adam now has a life. He breathes, he feels, he thinks, he has five senses. And because he was made in the image of God, he can have a relationship with God. In Genesis 19, 17-20, it's translated life. Genesis 32-30, it's translated life. Because soul there just didn't capture the meaning of the verse, so in English they had to translate it and use it.

What's really interesting is Genesis 1-21. It says, So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves with which the waters abounded. The word creatures there is nayfetch. Animals were made out of molecules of elements that come together, and that's what they were. They were elements, and God gave them life. And it's interesting here because it's used of mammals and breathing animals. It's also used of fish. God infused fish with life, and they were nayfetch. So unless you have a doctrine of immortal fish, we have a problem reading into the Old Testament the concept of soul being immortal.

So every living thing, God gives something to them that animates their life. They're just molecules until that point. And when that happens, they become nayfetch. They become alive. We have to show the difference. There is a difference between what human beings are and what animals are, but that's not what we're dealing with in nayfetch.

In fact, it's interesting if you go to Leviticus 21.11, it talks about dead bodies. The word body there is nayfetch. What it means is they were alive, and they're not alive. There is no concept in ancient Hebrew of a person is a body in which an immortal soul is trapped in. We don't have time to go through this, but one of the reasons for monasteries in the Middle Ages, one of the reasons for asceticism that you should not get married, you should sleep on a hard bed, drink nothing but water, nothing but bread, which was a big movement in the Middle Ages.

That that's what made you a better Christian. It came from the idea that you are an immortal soul trapped in this horrible body. And this body is a prison, and it's horrible, and the thing to do is beat this body into nothing until you die and you get freed. There is no concept of that in the Old Testament.

You're simply alive. Without a body, you're not alive.

Without a body, you're not alive. And so you can have dead neifesh, something that's no longer alive. The body is there. It was alive. It's no longer alive. So see how the word is used, and you begin to understand what it means. That's why Ezekiel 18, we read this a lot of times as sort of proof text of, well, see, souls die.

But what people who believe in the immortal soul say, they have a different definition of death. And once again, it comes from Greek philosophy is that death, Plato said this, and this is really how it came into Greek philosophy. Death is simply the separation of the eternal soul, eternal soul, from the decaying body. And they simply separate. And now the soul is free. Of course, he also believed in reincarnation, but that's another thing. So what we have in Ezekiel 18, it's in two places here. Let's just look at verse 20.

Let's see, where do I want to look at?

That's not what I wanted. I wrote down the wrong verse. It's, let's look at verse...

Oh yeah, let's look at verse 4. That'll say the same thing. There's two places he says this. Behold, all souls are mined, and the soul of the Father, this is God talking, as well as the soul of the Son is mined. This is all nafish. The soul who sin shall die. So we say, okay, see, that's the immortal soul. Death just means it's separate. No, since the word there is nafesh, death means a session of life entirely.

Because I find it amazing that people who believe the word soul there believe that it's immortal, that it means immortal. The same word is used for animals, but they don't believe in the immortality of animals. But it's the same word. If one's immortal, they're both all. Everything. Everything alive is immortal.

And of course, that is not part of Christian doctrine, whether it's Protestant or Catholic or Greek Orthodox. So the soul, the nafesh that sin shall die, it ceases to exist. That's a very important concept. And it's basic to the Old Testament. When in the Old Testament a human being dies, they go to Sheol. And we'll talk about Sheol when we talk about, a few months from now, when we get in and actually talk about hell. Because Sheol is the word hell in the Old Testament. It's translated hell. It's also translated a lot of different ways, and there's a reason for it. There's a reason for it, because you have to encompass the meaning of it. And in doing so, they translate it into a couple different English words. So we will see that when we get into there, that all human beings, whether you're righteous or good, go to the same place. And it's very interesting in 2 Kings, verse after verse, it talks about kings dying. And when they die, it says they slept with their fathers. And this was the idea of the Old Testament concept of a human being. The Old Testament concept is, you're alive because God breathed into you. God gave you something you did not have. And then it goes away. And you're asleep. You're dead. Now the reason they use the word sleep is because there isn't the concept that that's the end. There's nothing, you know, you better live a good life now and enjoy it because when you die, you're gone. You never come back. The idea of sleep, and we'll see that when we get into hell, was the concept that you can't live again. But you're dead unless God gives it back to you. God gives it, he takes it away. Unless God gives it back, you're dead. You never wake up.

This is the concept. That's why you'll find passages like Ecclesiastes 9.

Please, he has these nine.

Verse 5.

You know, Solomon says this in almost... He's despondent here. But he's making a point because he's looking at death. He's an older man. He's looking at death, and he realizes God gave him all these privileges. And God gave him wisdom. And God gave him a kingdom. And God gave him wealth. And he had wasted much of it.

He had built the temple to God, but he had wasted much of his life. He says, verse 5, He says, verse 5, And they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Also, their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished. Nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun. In other words, they're not going to be involved in his physical life.

Now, we'll see that in the Old Testament, the understanding of the resurrection wasn't fully developed as much as the New Testament. But even Solomon believed, and there's a few places, that there is something after this. We don't know what it is, because when God takes your life away, it's gone. The emphasis is on God as the originator of life, and God determines what happens with life. Verse 10, Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work, no device, no knowledge, no wisdom in the grave, where you are going. That's pretty despondent, you know. Sheol, there. You're going to hell. The word grave is translated hell in many places. This is where you're going. And when you're there, you don't know anything, you don't remember anything. David talks about the same thing. About going to a place where you can't even, in Psalm 6, he talks about you can't even worship God there, because you don't know anything. The idea was, when God took the life away, you were no longer alive, you're no longer conscious. Now, as I mentioned, this is the basic teaching of the Old Testament. And we can give a whole sermon, just going through Scripture after Scripture on this. But by looking at this and understanding the fact that almost all people who know Hebrew agree, ancient Hebrew, agree, this is what it means. This isn't a real argued point. Then there'll be an attempt to try to say, well, let's show you that God did give the teaching of the immortal soul, but it's only in a couple places. They'll try to pull them out, say, well, most people didn't understand this, but there's a couple places he showed it, and it just doesn't fit. It doesn't fit. So we know what the Old Testament taught. So what does the New Testament teach? New Testament. We're going to look at a word that is translated soul, which has numerous ways to pronounce it. And probably part of it is it's pronounced different today than it was back in ancient times. Greek has evolved a lot, too. It's where we get the word psyche from. Psyche. The best... once again, how is it pronounced at the time of Paul? No one quite knows. I think it's suke. But it's spelled slightly different than psyche, but it's the same word as psyche today. Let's talk about suke.

Suke means to breathe, which is basically what nayfish means. You breathe. So the root word simply means to breathe. See, the problem with psyche today is it has a lot of huge variations of meaning. You can talk about, wow, that person's depressed. And we would say, wow, there are some real problems with their psyche. Because psyche today... you get psychology, you get all kinds of things, all kinds of words that come from this. But if you go back to the original root, which was used in New Testament, Greek, you find it simply means to breathe. It simply means to be alive. It means to be alive. It is used to mean the natural life of the body. That was the interpreter's Bible dictionary. This is from Vines' dictionary, biblical words. Natural life of the body. Sometimes it can mean the spirit, the mind, the inward man, and animals.

So what this word shows, which nayfex actually shows, when it's used for human beings, it also includes that you're self-aware. There's something different about the nayfesh of human beings. It's not immoral, but there is something different than the nayfesh of animals. There's something different about the suke of human beings than animals because you're self-aware. And so, even though it's used for animals who are not self-aware, it can be used for human beings. And then there's a different application. It's used differently sometimes. But no place doesn't mean immortal. It does mean, though, that we can be different. And then the New American Standard Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible, which has a great deal of information in it, a Greek and Hebrew dictionary in it, that immaterial part of man held in common with animals, the immaterial part of man that is the same as the immaterial part of animals. In other words, you're alive. So unless you believe in the immortality of animals, which I know of no Christian group that believes that. I know Hinduism hits at that and others. But there may be, but I just don't know of any that believes the immortality of animals. So unless you have to, in order to believe that suke means immortal in its own self by itself, then you would have to believe the immortality of animals. Because suke is what human beings are and what animals are. And yet there's a difference. And we'll have to talk about that difference next time. Let's look at some of the ways it's used. It's used in reference to the life of people. Let's look at one of these. Let's look at Acts 2, 41.

It's hard to go through all these scriptures and figure, okay, I'm going to pick out a couple to use as my point here. Once again, I am not proof texting because these words are used throughout the Old and New Testaments. And you will find them used this way over and over again. Acts 2, 41.

Then they were gladly received His Word. This is when after, of course, Jesus is dead or resurrected, and the apostles now are teaching about Him to the people, in the Jewish audience here. And with many other words He testified and exhorted them, saying, we say from this perverse world, verse 41, that those who gladly received the Word were baptized, and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. These all say immortal souls were added. No, it just means people, persons, human beings that were alive, okay? It doesn't say dead sukeh, like dead deh veg. They're alive. They're breathing. They're animated.

You'll find this in chapter, it looks like it's chapter 27. Acts 27. And I know this is, you know, this isn't a really exciting sermon. But we have to go through this once in a while. We have to remember why we believe what we believe. Do you realize how important this is? Let me explain something to you. The entire basis of Catholicism is that there are hundreds of thousands of people in heaven who intercede for you. If you go to a Catholic church, you will find people praying to Mary and praying to different saints, because those saints go to Jesus who go to the Father for you. You want to go to Mary because Jesus loves his mother and is really going to listen to her. Do you realize if there is no immortal soul, the Catholic church is based entirely on a lie. Its entire worship concept is based on a lie, and the Catholic church is not Christian. Do you realize how important this is? It can't be Christian, because they are praying to individuals who aren't there. They are praying to individuals who aren't there. So understand the importance of this simple doctrine, and why people can get so upset if you believe in this doctrine. There are lots of Protestants who are going down this route, because they can't see what the Bible says. They say, there is no immortal soul, but they are basically getting kicked out of mainstream Christianity or Protestantism, because they can't accept it. And of course, the Catholics won't look at it at all, because they can't if they do. The entire system is based on the falsehood. So this is important, and it is important for us every once in a while to take the time to plod through why. Why do we believe this? Acts 27, 37 says, And in all, we were 276 persons on the ship. The word person there is hun. It's okay. It's souls. We were persons. We were people on the ship. So you'll see that word translated in different ways. That makes sense in the sentence, but they all come from the same word. He wasn't saying there were all these immortal people. There were just this many people on the ship. It is used of animal life. In Revelation 8 and 9, Revelation 16, verse 3, creatures, animals, are called suke. So we're back to how can you have a determination that one is immortal, one isn't? And that's where the well...okay, now we have to enter the Spirit into here to try to explain it. Well, this word of itself doesn't prove it's immortal. It can't. And yet it's used...oh, the word soul means immoral. It might have meant that to Plato. It doesn't mean that in the Scripture. And then we have, of course, the interesting statement that's made in Matthew. So let's go to Matthew 10. Matthew chapter 10.

Verse 28. Let's see. Jesus says, And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the souls. Oh, see, there's a difference between soul and body. Let's think about what it's saying here. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now what we're going to go through when we go through spirit is the understanding of... He's not saying that there are two different things. What he's saying is, somebody can kill this body and you are no longer sukei. You're no longer alive. Or you're no longer an afesh. But God, the life comes from God. The life goes back to God. The life goes back to God. And God keeps it. God keeps it. I mean, God gave it. He takes it back and he keeps it. And everything that that person was is kept by God until he wakes them up. He said, you know what you should really fear? He who can destroy everything you are. Not just put you to sleep. You die, but God takes your life back. He can erase what you were. See, life comes from the breath of God. Show how spirit and breath can actually... Actually, breath sometimes is translated as spirit. Life comes from God. Everything you see, God made and then he made it alive.

Now you can see why the angels were singing. It's one thing to make grass. It's another thing to make it alive. Because there is a certain life in it, you know, not alive like an animal. And by the way, plants are never called nafesh or suke. It's only animals are human beings. But then to make cows and suddenly they're awake, in their very limited way.

And they're eating, and they're moving, and it's like, how do you do that? God gave them life, and they become suke. He says, I can take that back. When the life of animals goes back, it's gone. The animal was erased. Even Solomon thought he even worried, wondered about that. The spirit of an animal just dissipates. He says it goes into the ground. But the spirit of man goes back, and God holds on to it. He really wrestled with that idea.

He could...we go back. We're not aware of it. We're not conscious, but we go back. This is why the bodily resurrection is absolutely essential. And this is why mainstream Christianity, who has so much trouble with, having people become disembodied spirits, float around in this uncomfortable state in heaven because everybody wants a spirit of body because God says that's your reward. So you don't get your reward, you go to heaven, where you don't get your reward.

And then when Jesus comes back, you get to come back and get a body. That's sort of a strange idea. They think, this is strange. The scripture is quite clear here. So what we have, he says, fear... Yeah, you don't fear people who can just put you to sleep. Fear someone who can erase you. They erase who you are. That's what God is going to do. He erases who you are. He destroys both your body, but he destroys your suitcase.

Your very life just goes away. It's an important statement he makes. We'll get into...when we get into hell, Jesus comments about Gehenna because, except for one place, all the places in the Bible, in the New Testament, where it talks about Gehenna is made by Jesus, then there's a reason for that. Very important reason for that. So God can destroy both the body, but he can destroy forever the life. So what we begin to find in the New Testament, the word sukeh, which is the Greek word that the New Testament is written in, is used the same way as nefesh.

It's used the same way. So we'll get into the verses, then, that are used to quote-unquote prove the immortal soul when we get into spirit, but understand that word itself doesn't mean immortal soul. It means that you're alive. God gave you something you did not have. Adam was made out of the dust of the ground. He was made out of mud and clay. And God made him, you know, he got a liver and he got lungs and he got all this, and then he was there, but he was not yet a nefesh.

He became a living nefesh when God breathed into him. So, we talked about how, in the Old Testament, nefesh just does nothing. You go to Sheol and you are blank. You're not aware, and unless God does something, you never come back. That's the same concept we're going to find in the New Testament.

Let's look at a couple of places. One I'll just mention is Lazarus. Lazarus died, Jesus comes, or he's coming, and he says to his disciples, he's asleep. They say, well, good, he's sick. It's good he goes to sleep. Sick people need, you know, sleep. He's not asleep.

He's dead. But he is sad, he's asleep. I don't mean he's physically asleep. I'm telling you, he's dead, because that's the common way in which death is talked about in the Bible. God gives you his life, he takes it back, but human life is held on by God.

Even the evil life of a person is held by God. There's a reason for that in terms of judgment. So God takes this human life, and he holds it. You know, I've heard people say, well, how does he store that? God's mind is God's mind, okay? He doesn't forget anything. He doesn't choose to forget. God's so much bigger than what we think. It's there! He's got it! I commend my spirit to you. Okay, I've got it. This is the greatness of God.

He doesn't have a big filing cabinet where we're all like little CDs, you know? Oh, there's a good one! Oh, no! Over the years, it got sort of deteriorated, so Abraham's going to come back and never be quite the same. This isn't how this happens, okay? The spirit is contained in his spirit. He stores it.

Let's go to Acts 7. Acts 7. We have the example of Stephen. Acts 7 and verse 60. Stephen is being stoned, and it says, Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. When he had said this, he fell asleep. Why didn't they say he went to heaven? Remember, about a year and a half ago, I gave a sermon on that Enoch and Elijah go to heaven? And the one thing I brought out, all the people in the New Testament that are resurrected physically, and not one of them said, let me tell you what heaven is like. Not one. You'd think if God wanted us to really be looking forward to going to heaven, when Lazarus was resurrected, he'd have come out of that grave saying, you can't believe what heaven is like. They had no memory of what heaven was like, because they had not gone there. They went to sleep, and what they were, the life that had been given them, was taken back by God. It was taken back by God. 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection chapter, which is extremely important in understanding this whole subject. Let's look at a couple of verses. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 6. Paul is talking about how Jesus revealed himself to Peter and the apostles and all these people. And of course, he didn't even know who Jesus was at the time. He thought, well, he did, but he wasn't one of his disciples. He didn't believe in him. After Jesus' death, he went around persecuting and killing people who followed him. He says, verse 6, After that he was seen by over 500 brothers at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep.

There is no concept here that they are somehow consciously in heaven. Verse 20. But now Christ has risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. He's the firstfruits. If everybody went to heaven before him, he wasn't the firstfruits. They were already there. So this makes no sense. And this is why some Christian theologians, in an honest attempt to deal with this, say that everybody in the Old Testament who died went to hell and they were in a special compartment in hell where it wasn't really bad. Because they weren't in heaven yet. Because then he couldn't be the firstfruits. So they were in this special compartment in hell waiting, and then they were taken to heaven after Jesus was presented to the Father as the wave shape of her. It's a convoluted, it's honest, but it's a convoluted way of dealing with a problem because you already have a preconceived idea. So you have to make up something. Verse 50, behold, I tell you a mystery. This is verse 51. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on in corruption. Understand, this corruptible person must put on in corruption. Well, that means just the body. Well, Nefesh and Sukeh is used in the Old and New Testaments. Now, you can't separate these things. Yes, the life that you are goes to God, but it is asleep. It has to be reanimated by God.

But this next point, and this mortal must put on immortality. Mortal means able to die. So this ability to die has to be changed into an ability not to die.

So when this corruption, or corruptible, is put on in corruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying, Death is swallowed up in victory. So death is not destroyed until the resurrection. Because then, people will have, as 1 Corinthians 15 goes through, it talks about this glorious resurrected spiritual body, will have a body that can't die.

So if you're a disembodied spirit floating around in heaven, why do you need a body? Because you already can't die. There are so many logical problems with the immortal soul doctrine of 1 Corinthians 15.

But once again, what you haven't... I think I mentioned this before. I was at a funeral one time, a Methodist pastor, and he gave a very fine funeral. It was very long ago. I mean, I used to speak for 20 minutes. He spoke for an hour. And he read all of 1 Corinthians 15, except for a couple verses, and he stopped, and just, you could tell, he was concerned. He says, all I can tell you is, I don't know where she is. I don't know where she is. I just know that she will be resurrected.

And he didn't know what to say.

Because this didn't allow him to go where he had been trained to go, and he was trying to be true to the Scripture, so he just finally said, I don't know where she is. Which I don't think was very comforting to the family.

1 Thessalonians 4 But it was honest. I admire honest people.

Because none of us know everything.

And sometimes we all have to be honest enough to say, I don't know.

1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13 is well read. I read this at every funeral I do. But I do not want you to be ignorant, brother, concerning those who have fallen asleep, Paul says, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus, who sleep in him, they're asleep, they're in him, they're in him and the Father.

And waiting to be reanimated, so there's no thought, there's no feeling, there's no thought. There's total unconsciousness. And it can only be regenerated by God. You can't regenerate yourself. I mean, how in the world are you going to die and resurrect yourself?

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who are asleep, to be part of the first fruits of the first resurrection, those who are alive will not precede those who are dead.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with the shouts, with the voice of an archangel, and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. That we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds and meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord, therefore comfort one another with these words. And so here we have the concept, all through the New Testament. You'll see it in numerous places. That death is sleep, just like we see in the Old Testament, that you go someplace where you don't know anything. You can't even praise God when you're there.

So there's the continuity between the Old and New Testaments. It's much more profound on this subject than what many people believe, and that's because they believe when you get down to it, when you really get down to it, what they believe is Paul brought a brand new doctrine.

Because Jesus didn't seem to believe in the mortality of the soul. He said God can destroy your Sukeh. So Paul creates a brand new doctrine that everybody agrees is Greek in nature, has nothing to do with the Old Testament. I don't believe that. I believe the Old and New Testaments on this subject fit perfectly together. In fact, the New Testament gives us information. We don't know. 1 Corinthians 15 doesn't... There's nothing in the Old Testament as detailed as 1 Corinthians 15. Nothing.

So it fits together, which brings us to another point now, and that is that the understanding... Okay, so, neither they, fast or Sukeh, mean you're immortal. What does the Bible teach about immortality? Here's a few verses that are very important.

John 3, 13-21. John 3, 16, you know, that Christ came that we could have everlasting life. We didn't already have it. He had to come to give it to us. John 6, 32-58. This is where Jesus said, You must believe in me, and I will give you everlasting life when I raise you at the last days. I mean, it's very clear. When you get it is when He resurrects you, reanimate you, and gives you everlasting life, which is exactly what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul didn't bring a new doctrine. He just adds all kinds of details. Now, there's a few places where Paul says something that can be taken differently, so we'll go through that. But this evidence is so overwhelming. Remember, when you have a scripture you don't understand, you don't use the minority passages to explain the majority. You can't use one verse to explain 50 things that say something different. You use the 50 things that seem to say something different to interpret this. This overwhelming understanding is you can't use the word soul in the Old or New Testaments to mean immortal. You can't, because the original words didn't mean it. They just mean you're alive. Just mean you're alive. So, like I said, we're not going through some of the others, but we will next time in a few months, because we have to be honest to look at those. 1 Corinthians 15, we just read that. Mortal must put on immortality. It's not something you have. You have to get it. And it's our own conjunction of receiving a spiritual body. So, if you go to heaven and hang out waiting to get your spiritual body, how could it be immortal if immortality comes through the body? You see what I mean? Because you separate the body from the soul and make them two such different things, but what we see in the Bible is they exist together. They exist together as a person. You are a person.

Romans 2. Let's look at that real quick. Let me just wrap up here with a couple more scriptures, because I know when you cover something like this, there's only so much the brain can absorb. And this isn't new to most of you, but boy, I don't know, when I go through basic doctrines, I get excited. Because it's like, you know, because I try to disprove. I'll take some of our doctrines and say, okay, I'm going to study what other people say. I'm going to study what... Oh, what do I have at home? Luther's... No, Thomas Aquinas' translation of his teachings of Galatians. Believe me, what we teach is right.

And please, don't go by anything by Thomas Aquinas. Well, Darris always says, I'm a nerd. So unless you're a nerd like me...

I was talking to Scott Ashley the other day. We were talking about something in a BT article, and we were going back and forth and back and forth about some things. And I said, well, Darris just says I'm a nerd. He laughed. He said, who is he to say you're a nerd? He's the biggest nerd I know. I felt better because they're really good friends. Romans 2. Let's start a verse. Let's see, let me get the Romans. I didn't mean to get talking about nerd being nerds.

Romans 2, verse 5. Breaking into the middle of a whole serious thought here, and I just want to bring it up what he makes.

Well, you know, it'll be explained. What he means is eternal life in heaven instead of eternal life in hell. That's not what Paul says. You have to have a preconceived idea. Of course, what we have in 1 Timothy 6, 13-16, we have Paul making the statement that only God has immortality. Only God possesses immortality. But the Father and Jesus Christ. Now, what's interesting is when 1 Corinthians 15 and these other places, when can human beings become immortal? Well, you can't be immortal forever in the past like God is.

You want to not be able to sleep at night, try to figure that out. God's lived forever in the past. What was it like before there was time? I don't know because he made time. So, the Father and the Word have existed forever and ever in the past. No human being. We all have beginnings. We also have experienced sin. We also started as nafesh. So now we've started. But we can live forever into the future. So we must receive immortality. So, immortality is only possessed by God and only God can give it.

If it's only possessed by God, only God can give it. He can also take away life. He can take away life, though. First job, 3.15 is important. Let's go here. This will be our last scripture. You know, one of the things that some people in Nashville have asked and some of the speakers there, and I'm going to do it here once in a while, is that if you give a sermon and you go through lots of material, would the person who would give the sermon sort of stay up front for a few minutes afterwards so people can ask questions?

Not any question you want to. Just questions about the sermon, okay? So afterwards here, I'll be up here for a little bit in case you have some questions about this or comments about it. And if I don't know, you know me, I'll just say, I don't know. Because there are certain things I don't know, right? First job, 3.15.

Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. Boy, I tell you, this verse bothers me because of that little clause. And then what happens next? If we harbor absolute hatred towards somebody, absolute hatred. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding, living in him. No murderer has eternal life living in him. Now, murderers can be forgiven, right? And receive eternal life. People filled with hate can be forgiven and repent and receive eternal life.

But the point he's making here is, inherently, there is no eternal life in sinners. And all of us were sinners. We still sinned. But all of us were in a state of sin where there was no eternal life in us.

There was no eternal life in us until God gave us his spirit. Sort of the second breath of God that comes in. And he gave us something else. So this is an important verse in understanding. They're just, according to John, people who have not been given God's spirit have no inherent eternal life. God has to do something to give us eternal life. So, we've seen that the Old Testament didn't contain the concept of the immortal soul. And that's agreed upon by almost everybody that knows Hebrew.

Jewish teachers didn't teach the immortality of the soul until after Malachi. And then it started to come in. You see Philo in the first century, he starts believing it. Philo lived in...he was a great Jewish philosopher. But he happened to live in Alexandria, Egypt, which was the center of Greek philosophy at the time. It was even greater than Athens. And he was influenced by that. The New Testament writers did not teach the immortality of the soul and the use of the word suke.

So we'll have to look at the places where it may seem that way, but we'll have to talk about what it means by spirit. So the Bible leads us then. If we're going to deal with this, we also have to deal with what is the spirit and what happens to the incorrigibly wicked. We know what happens to the righteous. They're resurrected to eternal life with God. And God brings heaven to earth. But what happens to them? That's what we have to get into understanding hell.

So we'll take a break for a month or two before we go into the second one. So between now and hopefully the feast, we'll be able to go through these three sermons. See, people are going to be afraid to ask me for subjects. We want something to child-wear. Okay, we're going to get two in six months. So now we want something on hell. Well, I'm going to give you hell. Okay? I couldn't help it. My wife always goes, Did you say things like that?

We're going to go through it. And then we'll look at it. And I know it's material that many of you have studied and know. But never underestimate the importance of going back through and resetting that foundation from time to time so that we know what God is actually doing.